I recently traveled to Vietnam, just got back today, in LA they ask why my passport did not match my green card. I said that my passport is in my Vietnamese name and my green card was in my married name. They said change the passport. OK is this for real. I am from Vietnam do I get a passport with my now married name? I plan to travel to Vietnam again in 12 to 18 months I wonder if I caught somebody on a bad day or if I just do not understand everything?

Thank You

All of your documents should be in the same name, including your passport. Although most people do understand that it takes time to change everything over -- but you should still get it all done within a year or two.

Until then you need to carry whichever document (usually marriage certificate) that has both your old, Vietnamese name and your new, married name on it, so that it connects the two names and proves that you are the same person.

Just do like they told you to. Get is Changed....

Go to your Embassy and change or make and amendment of your passport to carry your married name.

spmalone,

You do not have to change your name on your Vietnamese passport if you do not wish to, unless Vietnamese law requires you to. My wife hasn't changed her name on her passport, or on any of her other native-country documentation, and for reasons of her own has no intention of doing so.

hcj's suggestion to carry a copy of your marriage license to reconcile the difference between your passport and your green card is a good one. (The other advice in his post is not, unless that's what you want to do.)

Yodrak

I never changed my passport to my married name after I got married. Carried a copy of marriage certificate along with greencard and passport. No problems. It expires in June of this year so I'll have the passport changed to my married name then.

It's not unreasonable to expect your passport to match your green card. Get it changed or count on carrying your marriage cert. around with you until the passport expires and you renew it in your married name.

...if only it was so easy to do.

My wife hasn't changed her passport yet. She is going to wait for it to expire then get the new one in the married name - till then we have traveled to Colombia and Mexico (and will be going to Costa Rica and India in the next 6 months) using her maiden name to book tickets (to match the passport) and her GC to re-enter USA. I even forgot to pack the marriage certificate one time but they have never asked for it so far. Good Luck

Yodrak,

It's not always that easy, unfortunately.
I had the same experience of the OP, at the POE. I was re-entering the US when the Officer told me the passport and the GC HAVE to match as the US can't change the last name of an immigrant. He told me: "No big deal, I see it all the time, but it's ILLEGAL to have the GC not matching the passport and you need to change either one".
I told him that in my country women can't legally put their married names on ID's, so he suggested that I changed my GC and wrote: "I-90" as a note on my passport.

Now, I traveled plenty of times before, and nobody ever told me that it's illegal to have my married name on my GC, actually nobody ever asked any questions about it, or never even asked to see the marriage certificate. Needless to say, I freaked out and I'm worried about that "I-90" note on my passport. I can't change my passport and I can't change my GC either right now, since I need it to apply to remove conditions pretty soon, plus all my other US documents (state ID, SS#) are in my married name, too. I'll keep carrying my marriage certificate with me for now, hoping that everything will be ok and I will try to talk to the Embassy again about adding my married name on the passport. I just can't help but wonder if that Officer was wrong about it or, if he was right, why NOBODY told us before that changing an immigrant's last name is ILLEGAL????? Why do they even give you that option, if it's not right??? All I always heard, even at my local office, was: "It's ok, just carry a copy of your marriage certificate with you and you'll be fine". Well, that officer didn't even care about the certificate!

Sorry, just needed to vent. Hope you guys can give me your opinions about this!
Best wishes.

Inlove_tx,

I agree - ill-informed immigration officers can make life difficult. I'd like to see where it's written in the INA that the name on the green card must match the name on the passport.

Perhaps zyggy will see this thread and can add something.

Yodrak

I've let tons of people through who had a different name on their passport than from their GC... There's too much on information on both to see that they are the one and the same person... and if push came to shove, I would ask to see the marriage cert, but I don't think it would come to that.

If that was the case, then my wife would have been refused entry a long time ago since she has still not changed her name in her passport... and it's been two years now...

Now it IS true that by IATA regulations, the name on an airline ticket MUST match the name on the passport.

Yodrak and Ziggy,

Thank you so much!
I feel a lot better knowing it was probably an ill-informed officer rather than a mistake on my and everybody else's part. I will go through the POE again in about a week and will let you guys know how it goes this time.

Again, thank you both!